Rem Gennadyevich Urasin is a Russian pianist and People's Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan. He was born on 15 May 1976 in Kazan.
Urasin studied at the secondary special school attached to the Kazan Conservatory. He made his debut at the age of eight with the symphony orchestra of the Tatar Philharmonic, and at thirteen he gave his first solo program consisting of works by Frédéric Chopin.
After finishing school he moved to Moscow, where he graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory in the class of Professor Lev Naumov. In 1992, at the age of fifteen, he won the International Junior Chopin Competition in Moscow. In 1995 he became a prize-winner of the 13th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and in the press he was compared with Chopin. In 1997 he became a prize-winner of the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. In 2001 he received the Grand Prix of the international performance competition Monte-Carlo Piano Masters. In 2004 he took second place at the Sydney International Piano Competition and also received four special prizes.
He has performed in Russia and abroad. His solo concerts have taken place in major halls of the world, including venues in Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, and Beijing. He has also appeared in Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Iceland, and Taiwan. Urasin has performed with the Russian National Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and other ensembles, collaborating with conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Spivakov, Kazimierz Kord, Antoni Wit, Veronika Dudarova, and Alexander Rudin.
In 2009-2011 Urasin prepared, for the 200th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin, the cycle “F. Chopin. Complete Works in 11 Concerts.” Performing all of Chopin had long been his dream, one he had prepared for since youth. According to the pianist, the fact that most of Chopin's works were written for solo piano made it possible to perform absolutely everything, every note written by Chopin, and to live through the composer's entire life in music.
Urasin has recorded several compact discs with works by Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff. In September 2007, a joint disc by cellist Boris Andrianov and Rem Urasin was chosen by the British magazine Gramophone as the best chamber disc of the month. In 2009 he was named Musician of the Year in the competition of the newspaper Muzykalnoye obozreniye. Two films about him were made in Kazan: “This Eternal Miracle” (1993) and “The Big Game” (2000).
His teacher Lev Naumov described Urasin's performing manner as combining sincerity, warmth, and elegance with wisdom and mature, always convincing interpretations of the performed works. On 9 October 2020 Urasin was awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.